'NY Times' Researcher to Go On Trial

By: Prosecutors are proceeding with an espionage case against a Chinese researcher for The New York Times and his trial could begin within six weeks, his defense lawyer said Friday.

Zhao Yan, who worked for the Times' Beijing bureau, was detained in September 2004, prompting an outcry by press freedom groups. He is charged with "providing state secrets abroad," but the government has not given any details of what he is accused of doing.

Zhao's lawyer, Mo Shaoping, said prosecutors told him Friday that they had handed over the case to a Beijing court. Mo said Chinese regulations require the court to hold a trial within six weeks.

Zhao is believed to have been detained in connection with a report last year by the Times about plans by former President Jiang Zemin to give up a key Communist Party military post.

China's secretive ruling party releases few details about leadership changes and treats leaks as a serious offense.

The Paris-based group Reporters Without Borders announced this month that it has named Zhao winner of an award for "journalists who, through their work, attitude or principled stands, have shown a strong commitment to press freedom."

China's Foreign Ministry criticized the award, saying it might encourage other reporters to steal secrets. The ministry also questioned the timing of the award, saying it might be an attempt to interfere in Zhao's court case.

Zhao was one of several journalists detained recently under China's broad but vague national secrets law.

Shi Tao, a reporter for a Chinese business newspaper, was sentenced in April to 10 years in prison after he sent an e-mail abroad containing notes about a government memo on media restrictions.

Ching Cheong, a Hong Kong-based reporter for Singapore's Straits Times newspaper, was detained in April while visiting the mainland. The government announced in August that Ching was charged with spying for rival Taiwan.

China was the world's leading jailer of reporters for the sixth consecutive year in 2004, with 42 journalists detained, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. It said most were held under national security or subversion laws.